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Not My Grandfather’s Newspaper

Posted on March 22, 2007March 24, 2007 by Staff

By Robert Dickson
Staff Writer

This is the column where I’m supposed to tell you that this isn’t my grandfather’s newspaper. He’s the gentleman you see in the photo accompanying this piece. He and my grandmother started a paper in Raeford, bought another one and merged them into The News-Journal in 1928.

The more I think about it, however, The Carrboro Citizen that I envision is just an updated version of The News-Journal of 79 years ago.

What community newspapers are supposed to do is keep up with the normal workings of a town. Sure, we’re going to cover the unusual and the sensational but we’re not going to create the news TV-style or twist some story into something it isn’t.

No, the mission of The Citizen is to celebrate and document the lives and times of the residents of Carrboro, North Carolina. Births, deaths and everything in between is the way I like to put it. It’s the usual that’s the real story, not the unusual.

I know this because community newspapers have been my life. My earliest memories are of my father’s newspaper pressroom on Elwood Avenue in Raeford, watching the pressman slide sheets of newsprint into the old Babcock letterpress and marveling at the wondrous sights and sounds of the linotype machine.

As I grew older I performed lots of small duties around the newspaper, including mailing, stuffing sections, delivery and photography. With all the goings and comings of the town passing through that old space, the newspaper office seemed like a mighty important place to me back then. It still does.

The press that printed the copy of The Citizen that you’re reading right now is sitting pretty much in the same spot as the Babcock. It’s a 1972 Goss Community that’s aptly named. This old press has printed more community papers over the years than we can count. The pressman that runs it is Mantise Andrews. He may live in Raeford but you’d be pleased to have him as your neighbor right here in Carrboro. He’ll do anything for you and will do it with a smile.

Mantise’s boss is Ken MacDonald. He runs our office in Raeford with humor and respect and a true love for his community. His specialty is mentoring school kids. You can find him at lunchtime several days a week in one school cafeteria or another. He’d also be a great addition to Carrboro but he’s doing vital work for his community in Hoke County.

I tell you all this because it’s necessary for you to understand that a true community newspaper becomes one with the community it serves. That’s what we’re striving for here at The Citizen.

We aim to listen to our town, to reflect our diversity and maintain our history. There are stories in Carrboro that can only be told by a newspaper created just for Carrboro.
So while there are large differences between my grandfather’s newspaper and this one, the essentials remain the same: local ownership and operation, community involvement and support, and the goal of being an important part of Carrboro for many years to come.

Robert Dickson is the publisher of The Carrboro Citizen.

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